Juan Orlando Hernandez, Former President of Honduras Extradited to the US on Drug Trafficking Charges

Hernández, 53 years old and who ruled between 2014 and 2022, today goes down in history as the first former president of the Central American country to be required by the United States and extradited to that country, to prosecute him for drug trafficking.

The United States accuses Hernández of three charges related to drug trafficking and the use of weapons to introduce drugs into that country, according to the US Embassy in Tegucigalpa on February 15. Then, the diplomatic legation indicated in a statement that “in total, since approximately 2004, the conspiracy transported more than approximately 500,000 kilograms of cocaine through Honduras to the United States.”

The first charge against Hernández brought by the United States is for “conspiracy to import a controlled substance” into that country, with the “knowledge that said substance would be illegally imported” into U.S. territory, “into waters at a distance of 12 miles from the coast of the United States. Additionally, he is charged with “manufacturing, distributing, and possessing with intent to distribute a controlled substance aboard an aircraft registered in the United States.”

The second charge is for “using or carrying firearms, or aiding and abetting the use, possession and possession” of “machine guns and destructive devices.” Count three refers to a “conspiracy to use or carry firearms, including machine guns and destructive devices, during and in connection with, or possess firearms, including machine guns and destructive devices, in support of the conspiracy to import narcotics,” according to the US indictment.